Gbiota Blog
Food, health and sustainability
Our food should keep us healthy and be produced in a sustainable way. A couple of hundred thousand years ago, when we were hunter-gatherers with a population of just a few thousand, there was an abundance of land and natural resources. Now, as our population…
Soil for Wicking Beds: Biology, Minerals and Health
Healthy Plants vs Plants That Make Us Healthy The most common question I am asked is about soils for wicking beds. That’s as it should be, because soil is the most important factor in ensuring wicking beds work properly. Let me start by saying that I am not interested…
Soil Biology: The Key to Healthy Wicking Soils
Soil biology is the key — my aim with WickiMix is to provide a concentrate and inoculant where people can create their own healthy soil from what would otherwise be waste. It is only needed in small quantities to avoid excessive transport costs. The three key elements…
Soil Journey: How Nature Creates Fertile Soil
Where to start regenerating soil? Well nature has been making soil for a few billion years so let us see what we can learn by taking a trip from the equator to the poles. The equatorial zone Despite the fact that equatorial soil gives the impression of being rich they…
Real Soil: Growing Healthy Food in Living Soil
I am a great believer in science, however I am concerned about the way science is used (or abused). Antibiotics must be one of the great achievements of science, saving countless lives, yet we feed antibiotics to animals simply because it makes them grow fatter and…
Transforming Parent Soils for Healthy Wicking Beds
Parent soils, such as clay, sands and potting mixes can be transformed into soils suitable for wicking beds. Here we start by looking at what characteristics we should aim for. The importance of biology Most people understand that the current system of factory farming…
Types of Wicking Beds for Healthy Soil & Plants
Wicking systems rely on the attraction between soil and water so water (and nutrients) will rise up from a water storage to the soil where the plant is growing. Here we review the various systems and conclude that the soil is the most important factor. Wicking Flower…
Why We Need to Change the Modern Food System
For the first few billion years the earth was just a barren rock. Then microbes appeared, they broke down the rocks and made soil which led to plants flourishing. Next came animals that ate the plants which were full of microbes so some microbes ended up in the guts…
Energy and Regeneration in Wicking Beds
Food gives us energy and regenerates our bodies. Most commercial foods now contain a lot of energy or calories based on simple hydrocarbons but lack the complex chemicals needed to regenerate our bodies are much more complex. Our bodies are in a continuous state of…
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Colin Austin
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